Snow
by Sarastro the Queen o the Night
Summary: Little mini-stories on how each show deals with the first snow of the winter. Dedicated to Minnesota's first snow. It was actually a while ago.
1. Alegria

**A/N:** Hello there! So, it snowed a while ago, the first snow of the winter here in St. Paul, so I started writing these ficlets. They're really short but I likes them. :).

And no, I don't own Cirque. I am not Guy. I wish I was. Le Sigh~

* * *

Francesca rose with a wide yawn, stretching. She wiggled her toes as she climbed out of bed. Rubbing her eyes, she looked outside. Her blue eyes widened, and a grin spread across her face.

"Eve! Eve, wake up! Come _on_ Eve!" she cried shaking her sister. The famed Black Singer was certainly not a morning person.

"What?" she grumbled, looking tiredly at her sister.

"It snowed last night!" there was a blank look on Eve's face.

"I'm going back to sleep."

"No! No! No you can't! Come on! Don't you want to go play?"

"Later. Sleep."

"Up, Eve!" Francesca pouted, then had an evil idea and stole the blankets away, sprinting out of their room, laughing.

"Hey!" the Black Singer was now completely awake, chasing after the White Singer. "Give those back!"

"You're up now! You won't need them!" laughed the White Singer, careening outside, followed closely.

"Francesca!" she was promptly hit with a snowball. The Black Singer stopped, stared at her sister lying in the snow, and had to laugh. She turned and saw most of the Bronx there, having a snowball fight. Francesca sat up, a bit disoriented, but grinned, and ran to join in.

"Well she's certainly happy," said one of the bird contortionists, approaching.

"She always is with the first snowfall. Can't say I blame her."

"Hmm." The two stood there, watching, until Eve felt a snowball hit her in the back of her head. The snow dribbled down her dress, and she spun to find the Flying Man, Aleksandr, trying not to laugh. And failing miserably.

"Aleksandr!" laughed Eve, creating a snowball, and throwing it full force.

Soon, most of the entire land was engaged in a mass snowball fight. Until Fleur showed up. Then, they all turned on him, laughing and running from his retaliation, until one of the Bronx slid on some ice, and skidded straight into him.

There was a pause of about two seconds…and then everyone started laughing harder than ever. Fleur had been a jester at one point, after all.

They continued to have "The Most Epic of Epic Snowball Fights that Has Ever Epically Occurred in Epic Places such as the Epicness of our Epic Land" as it was dubbed by a Bronx teenager. The citizens of the land got along for once, and only long enough to have this snowball fight. When the sun was high, the Singers had to call a break for lunch. Francesca offered to help make it, and everyone let her.

She made the _best_ food. Eve made the best desserts.

It was half an hour later that they were all crammed into the warm kitchen, being served the food that the White Singer was preparing. Sausages, pancakes, sandwiches, cocoa, those were just parts of the meal that Francesca was creating with whatever she found that she knew how to make.

"Do we have any butter?" asked Mikhail. Ekaterina tossed it to him, and how that was managed no one would ever know. Francesca set down a bowl of steaming corn, and rushed to pull the bread out of the oven. Eve was helping, carrying ingredients and such, until both sat down, also taking whatever food was there.

"These are _fantastic_!" cried Aleksandr, eating his pancakes eagerly.

"Thank you," said Francesca, eating her English muffin happily.

"Why do you make such delicious food?" asked Ivan, tears of joy running down his pale face. The others stared at him a moment.

"Why are you crying?" asked Elena after a bit.

"Try this!" he pushed the French Toast to her and she took a bite. Tears started pouring down her face as well.

"This food has to be unholy to be so good!" she said.

And so, when everyone finished the food that made them cry, they all left to continue playing in the fresh snow. There seemed to be a team of snipers up in the trees, so when Francesca skipped out, she was camouflaged but when Eve came out, she was hit in the face with a snowball.

This resulted in even more snowball fights until their resident Strong Man just threw himself against one of the trees, sending four of the angels tumbling ungracefully down. The rest descended with gentle smiles and laughter.

The others stared. No one had even thought that the angels could be so…evil. But this was forgotten when the Bronx came out, having found a bunch of sleds.

**

* * *

A/N:** So yeah...I was too lazy to make up names. Shut up.

School was being School-ish so I only got this published now. Plus being in the school play (Thorton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth-weirdest play ever) and yeah. Oh, and Hetalia's evil (yet awesome) power to just suck you in and make you fangirl over a _map_. History Class on the Roman Empire...Epic!

Woah, I got off topic. Review, my lovelies~!


	2. Mystere

**A/N:** Hi again! Two updates in one day? IS SHE GOING MAD? NO! SHE'S JUST FORGOTTEN TO TURN OFF CAPS LOCK!

There, much better. So, now Mystere's due to run into snow. Which, as we all know, is a little odd, as they are a desert. BUT! at night, deserts get _wicked_ cold. so, if the extremely rare desert rains come in at night...Veleicht sie werden Schee haben. Oh, my bad. German...heh! Maybe they'll have snow, is what that said. I'm so used to switching on German mode with my friends. So yeah.

And I'm assuming that after the first chapter we all know that I am, in fact, just a normal person? Ja? Oui? Da? Yes? Or is it actually Nein, Non, Nyet, and No? I'm leaning towards the first, myself. Well, I'll shut up now.

* * *

"WHAT IN THE NAME THAT IS GOOD AND/OR BAD IS THIS NONSENSE?"

Moha Samedi woke with a start at that. Then, he was struck with a feeling of cold. They had woken him at night. He would have some harsh words with the other creatures if there was no reason to wake him before the sun rose.

He stood, put on his clothes, and left. And his jaw dropped. The Black Widow was there, staring into the sky in shock. White stuff was falling from the sky.

La Belle was there too, and upon seeing him, scampered to hide behind him. "That's not natural," she said. "Are some Deities angry with us? Is this punishment?"

"No, I don't think so," said Moha. "I actually have no idea what this is. And if a Deity was angry with us, they would strike us down. There wouldn't be…coconut falling from the sky."

"I asked Brian what it was!" said Imp, running over. "He said that is was called…snow!"

"What's snow?" asked the Black Widow simply. "I haven't seen it before!"

"He said it's what happens when it's cold and it rains." As if on cue, they all looked up to the clouds above.

"Knew it would rain soon. I was hoping it would."

"Well, now we know the _one _thing Brian is good for," said Moha.

"You know, it really does look like coconut," said La Belle. "Why is it white? Did Brian say?"

"No," said Imp. "I don't think even he knows."

"Odd. I would think he would know more." She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, catching one of the floating white snows on her tongue. It melted. "Okay, that was weird."

"What is this?" asked a small voice, accompanied by a tug on Moha's coat. He looked down to see the babies there, holding their comfort objects closely.

"Well _Brian_ says that it's called snow," said the man, crouching by the children. "So either he's telling the truth or he's lying."

"I think he's telling the truth," said the little girl. "If you asked him he wouldn't have said anything, and I don't think you asked him." Her brother nodded. Moha smiled, and picked them up.

"It's cold," noted the little boy.

"It's nighttime," reminded the Narrator. "Black Widow here just woke us all up with her screaming."

"Hey! Hey!" said the creature in question. "The sky started doing _this!_" La Belle giggled.

"I think it's pretty," said Imp. "Ruby Bird agrees with me. I ran into her while coming to tell you what this is." They lapsed into silence for a bit, shivering, until La Belle said,

"Well, when the sun comes up, this is going to go away and I am not looking forward to that. So I am going to enjoy this while I can." And with that, she danced off, giggling and singing.

"As much as I don't want to agree, I have to," said Black Widow. "This is going to disappear when the sun comes up. Go have some fun." She turned and ran off herself, her own laughter (which made Moha shiver just _that_ much more) echoing back.

"Well, what do you say?" said Moha, looking at the two children. "Shall we enjoy this for the rest of the night?" they nodded, and he set them down. The two grabbed his hands and the three ran off, laughing.

* * *

"I caught a snow!" giggled one of the Lizards, holding one of the snows on his finger.

"Who cares? It's utterly freezing!" snapped the female bird of prey.

"You know, the snows are rather pretty," said her mate, regarding one. "But they melt too quickly."

"Not you too!"

"Yes, me too! Listen, what are the chances that the snow will come back? Next to none! Enjoy it while it's here!"

"Fine…and how do you propose we do that?"

"TAG! YOU'RE IT!" he then turned and sprinted off.

"Wha-I-you….WE'RE FULLY GROWN! COME ON!" but she followed him anyway, leaving the Lizards falling over each other, laughing. The Spermatos and Spermatites had also witnessed this and were also laughing.

* * *

When the sun did rise, the snow turned into water and rain, which the creatures of the desert did like, but they had liked the snows from the sky better.

"I liked catching the snows on my tongue," said one of the Spermatites as they sat in the rain.

"The snows?" asked Brian.

"From the sky," said Moha Samedi with a sigh.

"They're called snowflakes!" there was a long pause.

"Why flakes?" asked La Belle.

**A/N:** Yeah...I've actually asked why they're called snowflakes before. In my defense I was half asleep. Of course, I did also ask my science teacher why fire was hot...never mind.

So, I don't know why, but I think even the Birds of Prey would kind of turn into little kids in the first snow of their lives. Because snow is just that epic. And this is coming from a snow expert. I live in Minnesota guys. I know my stuff.

Reviews = super happy Sorastro

I leave you now with a plethora of smileys.

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	3. KA part 1: Imperialists

**A/N:** Okay, hi again! So, this time we are going to see how the Imperialists of KA experience snow. And if you haven't realized, these are ALL going to start with people waking up. It's just going that way.

KA is going to have four parts. The Imperialists (Twin Siblings, court), the Anarchists (Archers and the Spearmen), the Mystics (Forest People), and the Nomads (Mountain People). There ARE only four distinct groups, and they're so different that they each deserve their own story.

So...disclaim. Done.

* * *

"Mother! Father!" that was the first thing the Winter Palace heard. Not even yawns. No, just two children shouting for their parents. These calls were followed closely by two pairs of feet rushing along the marble floors. "Mother! Father!" A door opened, and a grunt.

"Wake up! Wake up!" cried the Twin Sister, shaking her father awake. "Wake up, Father! Wake up!" her brother was doing the same for their mother.

"What is it?" the Empress asked, sitting up. "Are the Archers and Spearmen attacking?"

"No!" laughed the Crown Prince.

"It's not a festival day, is it?"

"No!"

"Then I'm going back to sleep." The Emperor was already up, rubbing his face to wake up all the way.

"Oh don't go back to sleep," he said. "You forgot the only other reason they wake us up this early."

"It hasn't snowed, has it?"

"Yes!" said the Twins. The Empress moaned, but got back up.

"Fine. You'll want to go play outside, yes?"

"Yes!"

"Go get dressed. We'll do the same and meet you in the Entry, alright?" the two children scampered off, and the Empress lay back down. "I swear, they're going to be the death of us someday."

"If anything's going to be the death of us, it's going to be the Archers and Spearmen," said the Emperor, also not quite ready to leave the warm, comfortable bed.

"True. Alright, knowing our children they're probably already dressed."

* * *

Five minutes later, they were all in the courtyard, the Emperor and the Empress sitting and drinking hot tea while the Jester and the Valets played with the heirs to the empire.

"Gah!" cried one of the Valets when the princess leapt on his back and poured snow down his robes. She jumped off and giggled as he did an odd dance to try and get it out.

"Princess Michiko!" snapped the Emperor, standing. "Remember your manners!"

"Sorry, Papa!" she said, smiling sheepishly at him. The Valet in question was beckoned over by the Empress for a mug of hot tea, to apologize about the princess.

Soon, the Imperial Twins grew cold, and came over for their own tea, which they drank quickly, telling their parents all about what they were planning on doing, and asking if it would be "proper".

"May we have a snowball fight with the ambassador?" asked Michiko.

"No, Michiko, you may not," said the Emperor. "And Takehiko, do not even _think_ of ambushing him." The Prince folded his arms angrily.

"I was not going to," he said.

"Hayato, let them have some fun," said the Empress with a smile. "I do not think our ambassador would have much objection. They can have a snowball fight with one of the Generals if he says no."

"I suppose. Alright children, you can go ask him." The two grinned and scampered off. "Hoshi, am I going to regret this?"

"I hope not."

* * *

"I do have a lot of work…" tried Ambassador Sora, being dragged behind the Imperial Twins. "I have to prepare for a trip too…"

"You can do that later!" admonished Michiko. "It's the first snow!"

"Michiko and I are going to go on our studies abroad soon too, but we're playing today!" said Takehiko as well, smiling.

"Yes, you're both nearly adults. This is far too childish," said Sora.

"Do we care?"

"No!" said Michiko happily.

And so he sighed and said, "I am never going to get that work done today am I?"

"That's why you have assistants, Sora. They're there so when we drag you away like this life can go on as normal." Sora heaved a sigh and let himself be pulled out to the courtyard where most of the Imperial court were wandering the gardens, admiring the snow.

"And begin!" said Takehiko. The twins made snowballs and began to throw them at the ambassador who made his way away, being chased and threw some back halfheartedly. One thrown by the Prince hit Lady Tonohiko, who froze, and turned slowly. Her husband tried to grab her arm, but she molded a snowball and threw it with all the strength she could muster at Takehiko's face. It hit him and he fell back into the snow. His sister turned to him and stared. Then she began laughing. She laughed and _pointed_ at her brother, rolling in the snow, unable to stop, tears running down her face, and it wasn't even that funny!

Well, it was what they all said. If they put Princess Michiko in charge of foreign relations, they wouldn't even have to worry about the Archers and Spearmen they would be laughing too hard. And when someone visiting asked why, they would politely change the subject.

"Hey, I wasn't expecting it!" said Takehiko, kicking some snow at his sister, who was gasping for air. "And I didn't know Lady Tonohiko could throw that hard!"

"Lady Tonohiko…! I love that woman!" gasped Michiko.

"Shut up!" At this point, the Ambassador had been very sneaky and had gotten away to work, and Empress Hoshi was giggling and Emperor Hayato was wondering where he had gone wrong in raising his two children.

* * *

**A/N:** Dunno...I'm not AS fond of this one but...it'll do.

So yeah, I named them! It was just...awkward otherwise. So yeah.

Michiko: Wise child

Takehiko: Military Prince or Bamboo Prince

Hayato: falcon person

Sora: sky

Hoshi: star

Yeah. I dunno why, the names just seemed to fit. Oh, and Tonohiko doesn't mean anything. It's just a last name. I _think_ it's the last name of some of my Japanese relatives but I don't really remember and I'm not in the mood to do more work. Bleh. Shut up.

So yeah.

Review, lovelies!~


	4. Dralion

**A/N:** Hello again! So, we're visiting Dralion this time.

It's my personal belief that fire spirits/gods and snow do not mix. And so, I incorporated that. That's all.

I don't own it. (Do I _really_ have to say that at this point?)

* * *

Oceane and Azala were best friends. They spent a lot of time together. It was because of this friendship that there were clouds and mist and fog and rain. Gaia was a fan of this friendship, as it watered the earth. Gaia had even gotten to the point where she had created a little flag she would wave. Yao on the other hand wasn't so much of a fan. He didn't like rain in general. It put out his fires. He wasn't a fan of that.

So, taking this into account, the two Goddesses would occasionally play tricks on him. Making it rain on him alone, making the fog extra heavy whenever he was around…

"OCEANE! AZALA! I KNOW YOU'RE BEHIND THIS!" roared Yao, flames flickering along his body.

…or making it snow.

"What?" asked Azala. "I think it's quite nice." She held up her arm and the snow whirled around her.

"Azala. You were only going to make it snow in the Human realm this year."

"Yes, well, this is more fun." He glared, and the goddess of air laughed and alighted to said element, flying gracefully above his head.

"Don't make me shoot you down," he warned. Azala laughed and sped away, knowing he would do no such thing. Folding his arms, Yao let out a breath, and crunched through the snow. Why they did this to him he would never know.

"Isn't it nice?" asked Gaia, lying in the cold white. "Makes me sleepy."

"I will never understand you women," sighed Yao.

"We're more adaptable to snow than you," yawned the goddess.

"Obviously." Gaia smiled, rolled over, and fell asleep, beginning to snore, loudly. Yao sighed, and continued to crunch along, searching for Oceane, so he could properly blame her.

The water goddess in question was dancing along a lake, freezing it over. Everywhere her feet touched was a long shaft of ice. A pirouette, a leap, she was doing her best to cover all ground…er…water…

"OCEANE!" the goddess in question laughed, spinning lightly to face the god of her opposite element.

"Hello, Yao," she said sweetly, waving.

"Why snow?"

"In case you haven't realized, it's winter in the Human realm." He sighed, flames shining from his throat. "Calm down. I can see some fire." A _not_ amused glance was her reward for the comment. There was a sharp crack under her, and Oceane spun away, looking at the one shaft of ice reaching the bottom of the lake. "That's not good."

"Your own fault. I'm not melting that." Oceane stuck out her tongue. "Very adult. Really." She made her way onto land, resolving to solve the lake problem later.

"Personally, I thought you were used to snow at this point."

"I don't like it."

"You could always go to where it's summer in the human realm." There was a pause. "Alright, stupid idea." Yao nodded, not amused. "Look, it's winter, at least in half the human realm. It's easier for me and Azala to transfer winter there if we create it here. I know we've never explained it to you, but it's the truth." The God raised a quizzical brow. "That and it's kind of fun to see you so angry."

"I knew it." Oceane shrugged, and ran lightly off, snow falling in her wake.

* * *

After their world was carpeted in snow, Little Buddha began to build snowmen and have snowball fights with the spirits. Yao and his followers though, soon learned that prolonged experience to the snow gave them allergic reactions. Yao, for instance, his eyes were streaming and he constantly sneezed. Those who followed the bamboo poles were breaking out in hives, and they had had to send at least four women sprites to the human realm's summer to save them from having their throats close up entirely.

So, naturally, they were very upset.

Yao had tried to talk to the two goddesses who were causing it, but the two wouldn't listen, too busy trying to breathe from laughing, rolling on the ground as he constantly sneezed while trying to lecture them, little flames shorting out in the cold. And it wasn't his fault that when he sneezed he sounded like a little rabbit.

"Would you two-_choo!_- listen to me?" demanded Yao. Oceane was crying and almost convulsing.

"S-stop!" she gasped. "I can't _breathe!_"

"I hope you-_choo!_- know that this is all your fault!"

"Y-Yao, just give us t-two more days!" guffawed Azala. "We'll move the s-snow! L-Let little Buddha h-have his fun!"

"Fine! Let-_choo!_- let my spirits suffer! _Choo!_"

"Sir, I don't think they're going to listen," said one of the Fire spirits. He had hives all over his body, but he _had _accompanied Yao, so he would earn some favor for his strong devotion to help the others. "Liu has created a balm for the hives though." Yao, sneezing yet, stormed away, ignoring to the best of his abilities the two women falling over themselves laughing at his shortcomings.

* * *

"You know," said Gaia, watching with Oceane as Little Buddha threw snowballs at L'Âme Force with the help of a few earth sprites, "maybe you really should send along this snow."

"But I love it," whined Oceane.

"Don't whine, it makes it obvious you're the youngest of us. But Yao really is suffering."

"You mean the sneezing?"

Gaia sighed. She was the eldest, and so she had to take some responsibility for the child of the three. "Oceane. The sneezing is the least of it. He's sent dozens of his followers at this point to deserts so they can recover. Four women have nearly had their throats close off, and Yao is getting a very bad rash. Maybe you should apologize."

"Fine." The water goddess sighed, and stood. "Little Buddha!" the child turned, and ducked under the assault of Erik, before Estelle held his arms behind his back to stop. "May I speak to you for a moment?" the child nodded, and hurried over. "Now as you know, the Fire Spirits aren't holding up so well."

"Yes," said the boy. "Yao has sent lots of his followers to deserts so they can recover from the snow."

"Yes, child. Now, I'm going to apologize to Yao and his followers and then Azala and I are going to send the snow to the human realm."

"It will be back next year though?"

"Of course. But not this long." Little Buddha nodded, and bowed, before running off.

* * *

"I will murder you," growled Yao, looking up at Oceane from where he was lying.

"Hold still, sir," admonished the woman spirit spreading the balm on his chest, to help him breathe.

"Fine. But I will murder you, Oceane. Don't think I won't."

"You can't kill me, Yao," said Oceane. "It's impossible."

"Be quiet. This is your fault."

"Not really." Oceane folded her arms. It always set her on edge, staying where all the Fire Spirits lived. It was such a glowing force opposite her own. And she knew full well that they weren't exactly happy with her. "I had to fix the lake problem."

"Knowing you, you put it off." The spirit swatted the God, and he looked at her.

"I told you to hold still," she said. "I _will_ hit you again if you don't stay still." Yao sighed and went as still as he could possibly go. "Better." Oceane shifted her weight uncomfortably, seeing more fire sprites and spirits getting their bad reactions treated. One poor man had boils full of puss for goodness' sakes! "There. Now don't put any cloth on that for ten minutes yet. It will rub off the salve." The spirit stood, groaning from the rash on her back rubbing against the cloth and moved to help another sprite.

"I'm sorry," said Oceane as the man sat up.

"It's your job," sighed Yao. "You bring the winter and I bring the summer."

"Yes, but I didn't expect this to happen!"

"I don't think any of us did." Oceane huffed and dropped to sit next to him.

"I'm still sorry. I've hurt all of you."

"We'll be fine when the snow passes to the humans. At least, I hope." Oceane turned to look at him. "We've never had this before. We don't know if the recovery will be immediate or gradual, like when I sent those spirits to the deserts to recover." The woman bit her lip.

"I hope you get well immediately. And I hope that salve helps." Yao nodded. Oceane stood, and said, "I'm going to get Azala to help me transfer this to the humans." The man nodded, watching her evenly. She turned and left.

* * *

"To be honest, I'm going to miss Yao's sneezing," said Azala. "I feel really bad for the allergic reactions, but his sneezes were really cute."

"Sort of like a rabbit's, right?" said Oceane. "Yeah…anyway, we need to get the snow out of here." Azala nodded, and alighted to the air. The two called on all their power, and pushed the cold out of their world, pushing it with all their strength.

When it was gone, Azala fell out of the air from exhaustion. Two minutes later she stood, still taking deep breaths. "It's a lot of work, isn't it?" asked the air goddess. The woman in green nodded. "Should we go check on the fire spirits?"

"I think we should. It was sort of our fault," agreed Oceane. The two goddesses set off, talking to each other, heading to the home of the fire spirits.

The Hospital ward was still up. If they had gotten well, it would be down by that point, or at least burning. The two approached, and were greeted by the sight of Yao kneeling by a woman, lying on her stomach with her back exposed, speaking soft words of comfort as another woman spread salve over her rash. He stood, and saw the two. The only man among the Gods approached, and bowed. "Thank you," he said.

"You're all still unwell," said Oceane.

"It is a gradual recovery, yes, but I can feel us getting better. The loss of snow helps considerably."

"Well, do recover soon." Yao smiled and nodded, turning and going to help his followers.

* * *

It took a while, but the Fire Spirits did recover. The true sign of that was when Yao and Oceane started to fight again, their bickering carrying across the mists to Gaia's ears. She smiled at the thought that Yao was well again. And her smile grew when she saw the youngest of the fire sprites chasing the water sprites with flames in their hands.

* * *

**A/N:** So yeah.

One of my sister's friends (she's spending the year in southern Germany) is allergic to lots of stuff, and gets most of these reactions-rashes, throat closing up-and it really sucks for her.

Anyway...

review my lovelies~!


	5. KA part 2: Anarchists

**A/N:** Okay, so we're back...and there's snow up to my knees outside. Bleh. on the plus side I'm listening to German techno, so I'm happy (Disco Pogo, Party Alarm). and some Swedish techno (DotA, Boten Anna, and Russia Privjet all by Basshunter). Yay. And Russian pancakes make me happy, even though they're hard to make.

So! Here we are with KA part two, the anarchists. I'm going to tell you who's who now, just 'cause.

Yumiko: Chief Archer's Daughter

Kaede: Counselor's son

Kaito: Chief Archer

Daichi: Counselor

WHOA! THEIR TITLES ALL START WITH "C"! MIND IS BLOWN! (obviously, I'm easily entertained)

So, let's go!

* * *

Yumiko liked the first day with snow. That was the day they went to the forests, as the mountains would be too unforgiving, and the plains would leave them too vulnerable. That, and it was _snow._ One of her top four favorite things in the Empire (her father, snow, maple sugar, and Kaede's hair) was snow after all.

So, the day on which they moved from the mountains to the forests went basically as such:

Wake up, organize search parties for Yumiko (footprints already lost), bring Yumiko back with stories of her hyperventilating father, watch Kaede awkwardly interact with Yumiko, place bets on how long it would take for Kaede to get all his inventions together, head out, stop, keep going, and repeat these last two steps until the end of the day, leaving a trail of snowmen behind them.

And this was just another one of those stops-this time, for lunch.

"Okay, best thirteen out of fifteen," sighed Yuuto, watching Sena and Yumen glare at each other with absolute venom in their eyes. "One...two…three." Sena held out her hand flat, and Yumen held out his hand with fingers extended upwards. "Water quenches Fire."

"No fair!" declared the spearman. "She's reading my mind!"

"Sena can't read minds, it's scientifically impossible," said Kaede, looking up from his meal.

"Oh, is it?" asked the Archer woman. She turned to Yumen and said, "No, you're not just paranoid."

"She's reading my mind!" shrieked Yumen.

"That's the problem with marriage," said Kaito wisely, the chief putting his hand on the man's shoulder. "You can never hide anything."

Yumen sighed. "I never should have married her."

"No you shouldn't have," said Sena, sitting beside her husband. "Because now I have to share my sweet roll with you." She broke in half her prize and held out half. Yumen kissed her cheek before taking his half.

Yumiko, who was building the perfect amount of snowballs to throw at her father's friend, Daichi, saw this, and giggled. She liked the half-fighting love that was common in her people, the terror the men held for their wives, and the deep affection they both held.

Finally, she had enough snowballs, and Daichi had come in range…

The counselor did _not_ let out a strangled squeak when the snow hit his neck, dribbling down his back _thank you very much_. It was more a…yelp of surprise. He spun, and was immediately hit in the face with more snow. There was a bit of a pause, before Daichi's son, Kaede, started to laugh uncontrollably, biting his hand to quiet himself. Yumiko grinned at him. The two had been partners in crime for…well, since they could walk!

Daichi had wiped the snow from his face, gathered a snowball and threw it at the girl, who dodged it. "Don't you throw a snowball at my daughter!" said Kaito, taking one of his child's snowballs and throwing at his friend. This called for a battle, and that was something Kaede was always ready for, so he joined his father and threw a snowball back.

This soon escalated into an all out fight.

* * *

The snowball fight ended twenty minutes later with the reminder from Isamu that perhaps they should get to the forest before nightfall. It had been decided, however, that this battle would resume once they got there and built a fire to prevent freezing once the battle was decided.

"Seriously, what is _in_ this?" asked Yumiko, carrying one of Kaede's tool bags.

"Nothing much," he said. "That's the lightest of my tools."

"We really need a horse or something. This is ridiculous."

"We can't _afford_ a horse, Yumiko," said Kaito. "And we can't steal one. Not even _we're_ that low."

"Because we have absolutely no morals," said Daichi with heavy sarcasm.

"Don't use your sarcastic voice. It hurts my soul."

"I wasn't even aiming it at you!" as the two adults bickered, the two teenagers continued to walk, each carrying multiple packs.

"So, if this is the lightest, how are you carrying all of that?" asked Yumiko, nodding to his possessions, his supplies, his tools, his blueprints, his mathematical works, his scientific studies, his books, and Yumiko's drawings.

"Accumulative weight. It builds up over time, and so I'm used to it. If you gave me all this three years ago, I would probably have collapsed already."

"You never fail to amaze me!" laughed Yumiko. A pink blush danced across Kaede's face, and he looked away. "It's a compliment." Kaede nodded, ignoring Rentaro's chuckle.

Rentaro, on the other hand, was chuckling at how…he shied away from the term "adorable" for this one…endearing the two were. It was of course amusing to watch Kaede tiptoe around her and he had spent many of the nights he was on watch watching Yumiko play with the boy's hair, but when they talked like this, it made him smile.

* * *

"Yumiko, what are you doing?" asked Kaede, trying to turn around. Her firm hold on his hair though, prevented too much movement.

"Braiding your hair," she replied resolutely. "Stop moving."

"Why are you braiding my hair?"

"Because it keeps getting in your face! At least this way you won't have to keep brushing it away." He nodded as best he could, without instigating the girl behind him snapping at him again.

"You look like a girl," said Daichi, looking at his son. "Yumiko, unbraid his hair this instant."

"Daughters aren't that bad," said the Chief Archer, suddenly looming over his counselor. "Are you insinuating something?"

"Yes. My son looks like a girl."

"Thank you father," sighed Kaede, rolling his eyes. But there was affection in his voice for the old man. The girl sighed but unbraided his hair.

They had reached the forest, and Kyo was bickering with Haru over whether it was his turn to build the fire or not. In actuality, the snowball fight had faded into the background, everyone falling back into old traditions. Build the fire, catch and kill animals for dinner, leave some out for the Spirits of the wood, pitch the tents, go to bed.

"I'm telling you! It's your turn, Haru!" snapped Kyo.

"Both of you, make the fire together or I'm making a fire out of your weapons!" roared Kaito. The two archers froze, clutched their bows, and sprinted off to find some wood.

* * *

That evening, they were all huddled together in one large shelter, pressed against each other to share body heat. A whole blizzard had started.

"This is ridiculous," groaned Sena. "It wasn't this bad this morning!"

"I guess the first snow decided to be a little mean this year," said Kaito.

"Understatement of the Dynasty!" said Sasuke, huddling closer to his wife. The fire had long gone out, and no one was going to leave to build a new one.

"Well, at least now the Generals can't come find us," said Yumiko. "They'd be stuck in this too."

"Ever the optimist," sighed Kaede. They lapsed into silence for a while, the sound of the wind ripping through the dead trees the only thing they heard.

"Hey, Kaede," said Kiku.

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you read us one of your books?" a murmur of agreement rippled through the rest.

"I don't think you'll find them interesting."

"Anything is just sitting here in silence."

"Okay, fair point." The teen reached his pack with the books, and looked through them. Math, Science, more math, more science…did he not have anything else? "How do you feel about science?"

"As long as it's not too complicated," said Kaito. Kaede shrugged and pulled out one of his first science books.

"Okay, so we're starting with the senses."

"Fascinating," said Jee, with sarcasm so heavy it was almost tangible. Song punched him lightly, letting him roll with the punch. Kaede opened the book, and began to read.

* * *

By the time he was done, the snow had stopped and it was dark. Yumiko had fallen asleep against him, and as such his entire left half was stiff. Song was asleep against her brother, and Kaito was dozing, the also dozing Daichi propping him up. Kaede closed the book and carefully put it away, not disturbing the girl asleep against him.

True, she had once told him that he had a soothing voice, but that was just ridiculous.

"I'm not setting up my own shelter," declared Jin, curling up. That was how they all slept, protecting their center. Yumiko was moving to curl up next to Kaede, and he gently moved her to the ground. She may look like she sleeps deeply, but she could wake up within an instant, just like the rest of them.

"I'm not helping anyone with their shelter," said Jee, also curling up. Most of them actually depended on Jee to help, so everyone else gave up, and curled up, going to sleep. Kaede silently asked the spirits why he was in this situation as the only place he could curl up was right by Yumiko. And so, lie down he did. Yumiko moved closer to him, unconsciously going for heat. Kaede was torn between demanding why from the spirits and singing their praise. He settled for closing his eyes and trying to sleep. Yumiko's father could blame her for being so close.

* * *

**A/N: *WARNING! LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE!***

Yes, so this is based off my own speculations. They're the anarchists. The enemies of the Emperor. The Emperor has an _army._ Remember those guys in the beginning? Those were some of the generals. They can spare at least one battalion each. That's...if we go with a generic number for them, say two hundred...there's definitely more than three generals, probably about forty...about eight thousand men going after the Archers and the Spearmen.

These guys are military men. They're well trained. Our lovely anarchists-not so much. If anything, they seem more ragtag than anything. So, if we estimate a number for them...eighty people? probably less...that leaves us about 65-70 people against at minimum 8,000 soldiers. These guys are going to _have_ to be nomadic if they're going to survive at all. We don't see much of the empire. We see the ocean, we see the mountain, we see the forest, and if there's such a range, there's likely some plains, and there simply _has_ to be agriculture in some form, that would imply places where you can actually have agriculture, thus plains. There's probably also moors and swamps and marsh, but we're going to ignore that.

Take the Imperialists, and they're also going to have a few different palaces. We see one on the beach by the ocean, and you can assume that there are more elsewhere. Likely, since water has a high heat capacity (GAH! SCIENCE CLASS!) the temperatures are more steady there. The Imperial family would likely have their winter palace there (and when the Twins came back from their studies abroad (as we can assume they were doing), where else would the rulers meet their children but where they arrive?) so the soldiers would be looking for them in that general area. the Archers and Spearmen would have to be somewhere else. Nomadic.

Also, there's no way that the Counselor's Son could have created that bone powder machine from guessing. He would have had to have had an education. Take in the historical context that KA seems to take place in (sort of Han Dynasty in China mixed with the Mauryan Dynasty in India under Ashoka Maurya) and there are few people who can read and write. And since these people are nomads, they would likely have only oral traditions (history, stories, just like most tribes at the time) and that would make the Counselor's Son special in that he could read. Therefore, he and his father would command just that more respect.

Just my political theories on the empire.

NAMES!

Yumiko: choosing the characters for Yumi: archery bow and Ko: it means child. Archery bow child.

Kaede: Maple

Kaito: Kai: ocean To: Ursa major. No real meaning there.

Daichi: great wisdom

Sena, Yuuto, Jee, Song, etc.: Names I pulled from a magical land like a ninja magician.


End file.
